Maple Grove Family Camp

Almost home

It's been a while since I've posted here, and once again, I am going to try to keep it updated. A lot has happened in the last few months. One thing that has happened is that Jason and I made an offer on a house in Jackson. It has three bedrooms, hard wood floors throughout, and is in a great neighborhood close to two parks and the bike trail. I have had my eye on the house for a while, but thought it was out of our price range. After being forclosed and on the market for six months, the price dropped over $60,000 from its original asking price. If all goes as planned, we will close on the house and move in by July 31.

Cruise

March 9 to 17 we went on the first family vacation with Jason's family since we've been married. It was also our first cruise. After almost missing our ship's departure, we set sail to Nassau, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. My personal favorite was St. Thomas, where we went to Magen's Bay for the afternoon, which is ranked by National Geographic as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. We also had a great time on the ship enjoying the food, the sun, and the activities. The weather was absolutely beautiful, sunny and 80's every day. It was really hard to come back to Michigan.

The trip came to a sad end when Jason called me at work the day after we returned and asked me, "where did you put the camera?" to which I responded "it's in my carry-on bag, why?" Well, turns out it was not in my bag, or anywhere else. Apparently, I left it on the plane on our flight back. I was of course completely devestated. Not only do I love taking photos while on vacation, but I love to look back at the photos, create albums, play with the images, post them on my website.... *tear. Luckily, Audrey (my future sister-in-law) took lots of photos and sent me a CD of what she had. I'm not holding my breath that I'll get my camera back and have grieved my loss (literally, I cried for a day). But miracles happen, right?

Freckle faces

Skiing

Jason and I went skiing for the first time together a couple of weeks ago. I got him skis last year for Christmas, and then boots this year. He has been begging me to go for a while, so we finally went to a place over by Kalamazoo. It was a freezing cold night, but we had a lot of fun!

Ice skating!

This photo was taken on a trip to Grand Rapids a few weeks ago to visit our good friends Jenn and Ben Meador. We had a great time going to the art museum, ice skating, eating at several nice restaurants, and attending Mars Hill church. It was a perfect weekend! We always have a good time with Jenn and Ben and value their friendship tremendously.

18 months later.

So, I really haven't kept up with this blog like I wanted to. Okay, I haven't kept up with it at all since the first post a year and a half ago. Maybe it's time to resurrect it? Here's a recent photo from my cousin's wedding. Our wedding seems like an eternity ago!

This is my first time ever posting on a blog, and maybe for some of you it is your first time ever reading a blog. If so, we're both in uncharted territory. Honestly, for the longest time I really didn't know what a blog even was, and maybe you're asking yourself that question too. I would prefer not to think of this website as a "blog" or a journal, but as a way for us (Jason and Jen) to communicate with our friends and family. We want to stay connected to all of you, and we want to be able to share our lives with the people that we love the most... and that includes you!
I am going to try to keep this site update as much as possible, especially with pictures. Jason and I are so excited to be starting our life together and we really just want to keep people up to date on what we are doing. We miss you all and hope to keep in touch as much as possible. So, enjoy this site and visit it often. In it, you will find a little piece of us.